Ghost house set up to provide twist to HIV/AIDS prevention

TAIPEI--The Taiwan AIDS Foundation on Saturday introduced a haunted house to mark the annual ghost month on the lunar calendar, hoping to incorporate more fun into HIV/AIDS prevention education.

“We hope to teach people through games instead of textbooks,” Dawn Huang, a foundation official, said in a telephone interview.

Introducing the rules of the activity, Huang said participants entering the ghost house need to have three keys at hand in order to get past gatekeepers — condoms, lubricants and fingerdoms, or rubbers for fingers.

The official, however, refused to go into the details for fear of spoiling the fun.

Aimed at helping people understand the HIV/AIDS transmission route through real-world situations, she said that participants are urged to ask any questions regarding safe sex.

Huang and her colleagues got the idea of setting up a haunted house last year and did so at their branch office in Hsinchu City in northern Taiwan during the ghost month in 2011.

“The feedback was phenomenal,” Huang said, adding that some people even rated the activity as one of the scariest they have seen.

I have been doing HIV & AIDS consulting for more than 25 years in Asia. This proposed method of tying in a deadly disease with a Chinese lunar calendar event (and a scary one as Ghost month) is an immature un-professional way to educate people about a very real problem. You don't teach about any disease through games but rather through proper education and real life situations. If any person today is unfortunate enough to have contacted HIV, which can lead to AIDS, if not educated properly they will indeed become the ghosts of tomorrow.